Spencer Turnbull Suffers First Loss of 2020
When Spencer Turnbull stepped atop the mound before delivering the first pitch of Saturday's 3-1 loss vs. Cleveland, he knew that a nearly perfect outing would be required.
Indians right-hander Shane Bieber tossed seven scoreless frames, finishing with 11 strikeouts and lowering his minuscule ERA to 1.30 (4th in the MLB). He utilized an assortment of different pitches to keep Detroit's hitters off-balance en-route to improving his win-loss record to 4-0 on the season.
Bieber's high level obviously didn't leave much breathing room for Spencer Turnbull to make mistakes. Oftentimes, Turnbull's pitches are moving out of the strike zone, and that movement is a part of what makes his stuff so incredibly electric.
On Saturday night, though, he threw just 53 of his 97 pitches for strikes during a performance in which he allowed three earned runs over 4.2 innings.
"Part of the problem was I was thinking about mechanics too much," Turnbull said. "I let it get in my head. I didn't think my mentality was as good as it needed to be. I worked on some stuff mechanically between starts and I felt better, but I was thinking about it too much instead of being aggressive and working to get strike one."
The overthinking of mechanics is something that his pitching coach, Rick Anderson talked about in the latter stages of Turnbull's 2019 season when he led the Tigers pitching staff in losses with a 3-17 record.
Much has changed for Turnbull since then; his mound presence and overall confidence has improved tremendously in addition to how he's utilizing his pitches. Prior to Saturday's game, he was coming off the longest start of any Tigers pitcher this season, when he allowed one earned run over seven innings vs. Pittsburg.
Turnbull took his first loss of the season last night (2-1, 2.78 ERA) but showed flashes of why pundits are talking about how high his ceiling could be.
A one-out bases-loaded jam in the Tigers' half of the third inning could've been a lot worse, but Turnbull managed to wiggle his way out of it by inducing a 6-4-3 double-play off the bat of Franmil Reyes ending a laborious 33-pitch inning.
"That's definitely a positive take away," he said. "It could've gotten out of hand in the third. I had some good defense behind me and I got out of it. But it's frustrating, though. If I was sharper, it could've been a different game."
Turnbull's critical mindset will bode well for him as he continues to develop moving forward.
Detroit will have another crack at ending what is now a 19-game winless streak vs. the Indians when RHP Michal Fulmer (0-0, 6.35 ERA) takes the mound for Detroit against Cleveland's righty Adam Plutko (1-1, 2.45 ERA) on Sunday.
